When Ebola hit Liberia in 2014, an atmosphere of fear and confusion contributed to the spread of the virus by making people unwilling to come forward for testing and treatment. Oxfam trained and equipped community health volunteers to go door-to-door, giving information and advice, encouraging anyon...e showing symptoms to go for tests, and keeping their family members informed about the progress of their treatment. The approach won the trust of communities and helped to slow the spread of the disease. This case study gives an overview of the programme, including aims, results and a personal story.
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Vaccines are powerful weapons in the fight against pandemic viruses as shown by responses to both the 2009 H1N1 influenza and the COVID-19 pandemics. However, planning for accessing, allocating and deploying vaccines in a pandemic situation is a complex endeavour, beset with multiple challenges at a...ll levels – local, regional and global. The World Health Organization (WHO) and its partners have prepared this revised guidance document to assist countries update their national deployment and vaccination plans (NDVPs) by leveraging global learnings from past pandemic responses, including the recent COVID-19 vaccination effort. The development and testing of a NDVP would not only advance pandemic preparedness efforts but would also have benefits in terms of increasing national capabilities to manage other health emergencies which require emergency vaccination campaigns.
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According to the World Health Organization (WHO), sub-Saharan Africa has only 3% of the world’s health workers to cater for 11% of the world population, bearing over 25% of the global disease burden (WHO, 2014). With a steady increase in reported cases on the African Continent, the current COVID-1...9 pandemic threatens to overwhelm our already taxed health infrastructure. It is, therefore, imperative to take serious and urgent measures towards disease management and monitoring especially as the need for self-quarantine and contact surveillance rises.
In view of the infrastructural and resource gaps, technology should be considered for remote management of healthcare deliver to patients during this period. As it is abundantly clear, even countries with more advanced healthcare infrastructure and resources have struggled to treat COVID-19 and non-COVID-19 patients during this pandemic.
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Results of an innovative model launched in TB clinics in six regions
Accessed: 12.03.2020
WHO
Considering programmatic implications of rising levels of HIV drug resistance: finalizing the Global Action Plan
Webinars 12 13 Dec 2016
Antimicrobial resistance (AMR) is a global threat that requires urgent
collaborative action within and among countries. As a result of the worldwide reports of the increasing rates of AMR to hospital and community-acquired infections and in the agricultural sector, the Global Action Plan on AMR was... adopted in 2015. T
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Ebola messages based on their qualitative research done in hotspot areas of Bombali and Urban Freetown, Jan-Feb 2015
Supply of essential medicines and health technologies (6 April 2020)
This paper is one of a set of technical guidance papers developed by the WHO Regional Office for Europe to provide practical information and resources for decision-makers on measures to strengthen the health system response to C...OVID-19.
The purpose of this paper is to provide WHO Regional Office for Europe Country Offices and Member States with guidance on how to maintain supplies of medicines and health technologies, including devices, diagnostics and blood products, during the COVID-19 outbreak.
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The Global Fund’s Board meeting on 14-16 November 2023 was its 50th; and among the many issues for
information was on resource mobilization. The Board document provided an update on the status of the
conversion of pledges and the signing of donor agreements. In addition, it presented the results... of the
lessons learned from the Seventh Replenishment and sought feedback on the proposed actions leading up to the Eighth Replenishment. It also discussed ongoing resource mobilization, advocacy and communication efforts, as well as actions to mitigate funding and reputational risks.
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Ebola Virus Disease Outbreak Response Plan in West Africa July to December 2014. Annex 1
COMMUNITY EYE HEALTH JOURNAL | VOLUME 33 | NUMBER 110 | 2020
Policy Brief, Updated in March 2017
Key messages
• Meaningful involvement of sex workers in the HIV response through peer-based education and outreach and consultation in policy making and programme planning is vital to reduce their vulnerability to HIV and other sexually transmitted inf...ections (STIs) and ensure that the challenges they face are addressed adequately.
• Sex workers (female, transgender and male) have the right to protect their health through accessing comprehensive and evidence-informed HIV and sexual and reproductive health (SRH) interventions.
• Innovative HIV prevention strategies and creative use of combination interventions are needed to reach mobile and ”hard to reach” sex workers.
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The speed of developing diagnostics for SARS-CoV-2, the causative agent of coronavirus disease 2019 (COVID-19), has been quite remarkable. Diagnostics have focused on nucleic acid amplification testing (NAAT) to identify infected individuals in acute-phase disease for timely implementation of mitiga...tion strategies and case management. More and more immunodiagnostics, mostly rapid diagnostic tests, are being made available as an alternative to NAATs. This type of test can be used out-of-laboratory conditions at large scale.
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Refugees1 with disabilities have specific needs and face particular forms of discrimination. As highlighted in the Executive Committee Conclusion No. 110 (LXI)–2010, it is important for UNHCR to ensure that the rights of persons with disabilities who are of concern to the Office are met without di...scrimination. This places an onus on offices to develop a thorough
understanding of the circumstances of persons with disabilities under their care. This note provides staff with guidance on a range of issues to consider in meeting these responsibilities.
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In order to meet changing global population needs and consumer expectations, healthcare systems worldwide are under transformation and face restructuring. As systems adapt and shift their emphasis in response to the disparate requests for healthcare services, oppor-tunities emerge for nurses, especi...ally the APN, to meet these demands and unmet needs (Bryant-Lukosius et al. 2017; Carryer et al. 2018; Cassiani & Zug 2014; Cooper & Docherty 2018; Hill et al. 2017; Maier et al.2017). In 2002, the International Council of Nurses (ICN) pro-vided an official position on Advanced Practice Nursing (ICN 2008a). Since that time, worldwide development has increased significantly and simultaneously this field of nursing has matured. ICN felt that a review of its position was needed to assess the relevance of the definition and characteristics offered in 2002. This guid-ance paper defines diverse elements such as assump-tions and core components of the APN. The attributes and descriptors presented in this paper are intended to promote a common vision to continue to enable a greater understanding by the international nursing and healthcare communities for the development of roles commonly identified as Clinical Nurse Specialist (CNS) and Nurse Practitioner (NP).
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